This is the sound of crickets chirping

Two looks at the electronic whisper mute for saxophone. I don't live in a city quite so dense (or practice so frequently, ahem) that I feel that I'm disturbing roommates and neighbors too often. So I don't exactly need this. Plus it inhibits bell tones (i.e., low notes), some users say, leaving me to to wonder how useful this even is for practice. However, it appeals to me for reasons the developer probably never considered: as a way to potentially mute the acoustic sound while still projecting an amplified sound in a live setting using the mute/case's built-in pickup. That sound could be manipulated electronically, distorted, looped, and so on, with diminished acoustic interference. Which is possible with an electronic wind instrument that offers no native acoustic sound anyway, sure; but the e-sax whisper mute can be played with a standard saxophone—ideally, this 1935 Beuscher "Aristocrat"—affording all the same effects you can get with an EWI but sacrificing none of the action or subtlety. Of course you'd rather be playing a Selmer Varitone like Eddie Harris, but let's be realistic.

Still, even if it does look cool, the thing costs about twice what it would to just buy a Barcus Berry and try to project through the pre-amp and not through the bell—know what I'm saying?

Elsewhere, a four-piece bass clarinet ensemble covers Radiohead,

• Edmund Welles: Creep,